


salt water galaxies

by blackkat



Series: KisaZabu Drabbles [7]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Akatsuki Momochi Zabuza, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-18 19:16:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21281885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: Waking up with an arm tossed over his side is a surprise, largely because Zabuza didn’t expect to wake up at all.
Relationships: Hoshigaki Kisame/Momochi Zabuza
Series: KisaZabu Drabbles [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1422313
Comments: 16
Kudos: 683





	salt water galaxies

**Author's Note:**

> I am in love with the idea of an AU where Haku and Zabuza join Akatsuki, and at some point Naruto has to face the first villains he encountered, has to face the realization that maybe the system that made them is broken even after Naruto's own personal system has been fixed. Because honestly, after the Pein Invasion arc there was way too little acknowledgement that maybe the status quo wasn't actually god. I might do something more with it someday, but for now I'm just clawing towards my daily NaNo goal. *jazz hands*

Waking up with a brawny arm tossed over his side is a surprise, largely because Zabuza didn’t expect to wake up at all.

He jerks, wrenches forward even as every inch of skin blazes with pain. All he can think of is Gato, the bridge, the Konoha brats, _Haku_—

“Hey, hey,” a bewilderingly familiar voice says, and hands catch him, pull him back against a broad chest. Zabuza gasps, vision swimming, fingers clawing ineffectually at the mattress beneath him, but those hands stroke carefully across his skin, rub against his chest, and it’s enough to ease the knot around his lungs. Breathing hard, Zabuza slumps back, and he has just enough coordination in him to catch thick fingers, tug them up towards his face and into his line of vision.

Blue-grey skin, a little rough, thickly callused. Zabuza closes his eyes, letting himself fall back against that thick chest with a sound of relief, and the tension bleeds out of his muscles for the first time since Gato hired them.

With a chuckle, Kisame wraps his arms around Zabuza, pressing his lips to the nape of Zabuza’s neck. “Hey there,” he rumbles. “Not quite dead, huh?”

Zabuza’s laugh catches painfully in his throat. “You bastard,” he says, gripping Kisame's hand tightly, by virtue of not being able to reach anything else. “I thought you fucked right off the edge of the world, the way you disappeared.”

Kisame's skin is just as warm as Zabuza remembers, hard with muscle, but his hands are gentle as he strokes Zabuza’s side with light fingers. “Lucky for you and that kid of yours that I didn’t disappear completely,” he jokes.

_Haku_. Zabuza twitches forward, only to be caught and pulled back again, stilled before he can hurt himself. “Haku—I thought he was dead, the Copy-Nin hit him in the chest—”

“You're lucky I was with Kakuzu,” Kisame sys, light like he’s joking, but his fingers curl around Zabuza’s, press against his ribs. “Kid’s going to have a nasty scar, and Sasori’s still keeping an eye on him, but he’ll live.”

It’s too easy to remember that touch of snow, out of climate and out of season, falling across his skin. Zabuza lets out a shuddering breath, pressing his temple to Kisame's shoulder, and feels another light kiss pressed beneath his ear.

“Lucky you're alive, too,” Kisame says, voice low and dark and gentle. Zabuza had almost forgotten he could sound like that. His arms tighten, and it stings but not enough for Zabuza to protest. “They turned you into a pincushion, didn’t they? I thought I taught you to dodge better than that.”

“Even I can't dodge an army,” Zabuza says, and maybe once it would have been angry, offended, but right now all he can muster is tired. Near-death and betrayal and all the pain of that fight, facing the blond brat and his conviction and knowing, _knowing_ that Haku was dead for his sake—

Kisame presses his hand over Zabuza’s heart, big palm firm and warm against his skin. “Thought you were dead when we got there,” he says, and the words are light but there's a thread of meaning to his tone, something far heavier. “I was going to save the kid, since you were gone. Almost left you there. Kakuzu was the one to check you.”

It wouldn’t have been a bad death. Would have been what Zabuza expected, honestly, and he breathes out, tries not to think but can't help himself.

They should have died on that bridge. Should have died, betrayed and looked down on by the man who hired them, with nothing to show for it. Kiri is so far distant that Zabuza can't even recall the village clearly; everything’s faded, touched with the mist that hides it from outsiders, and that’s—ironic. Fitting, maybe. Zabuza ceased to be one of its shinobi the minute he tried to save it. He was betrayed, and Yagura was waiting for him, mocking and derisive of his goal. A better Kiri, he’d told his followers, and Yagura had repeated the words back to him, proved that someone Zabuza had trusted enough to share his dream with had given him up to the Mizukage.

The Demon Brothers died at Konoha's hands, and they were the last. Only Zabuza and Haku left to carry a rebellion, to gather money for the cause, and Zabuza had known from the minute he learned of their deaths that the dream was gone, shattered with no hope of re-forging it.

He’s so very, very tired. Tired of this life, tired of being a shinobi even though it’s all he’s ever known.

Haku died for him, stepped in front of Kakashi’s blow without hesitating. Zabuza thinks of that, of his body falling in front of Zabuza’s eyes after over a decade of him always at Zabuza’s side, and just—

“Fuck the whole world,” he rasps, gripping Kisame's fingers with as much strength as he has left in him. “Fuck _everything_.”

There's a long, long pause, heavy like lead. Then Kisame laughs, humorless and dark, and kisses the curve of Zabuza’s shoulder. “You survived,” he says, gentle again.

“To die again later?” Zabuza demands bitterly. Takes a breath that shakes, then lets it out, and squeezes his eyes shut. “Damn it. Sorry, fuck, I just—”

The body behind him shifts, twists. Zabuza’s back hits the mattress, and Kisame is above him, looming, hands braced on either side of Zabuza’s head. Zabuza hasn’t seen his face in _years_, but that’s not the reason he can't read the look Kisame is wearing. It’s something dark, something fierce, something with vast depths underneath the surface that are churning with buried emotion.

“No,” Kisame says, and it’s an order, sharp. His fingers slide into Zabuza’s hair and curl there, holding him in place, and he leans down, until that strange look is all Zabuza can see. “You're not going to die.”

Zabuza’s breath catches, and it takes effort to swallow. He wants to rage, wants to snarl and yell and curse, but he lets out a breath through his teeth instead. Tries to reach up, winces when it _burns_ all the way up his arm, and hears Kisame's soft huff. That big body folds down over him, gathers him up carefully, and Kisame just rests there on top of him, face buried in his shoulder.

“You're not going to die,” Kisame says, and this time it’s cheerful, even if he hasn’t moved. “You’ve got to take care of that kid of yours, right? He needs you.”

Something’s happened, Zabuza thinks, closing his eyes. Something’s happened with Kisame, left him rattled. Not Zabuza’s death; they’ve suffered that before, both of them, with missions. But—something else. Something big. He’s not talking, though, and Zabuza hurts too much to ask.

_Haku's not the only one,_ he thinks, and tips his head into Kisame's touch. “Right,” he says roughly, and means, _I’ll figure it out. _

Kisame’s attention is a dark, heavy thing, warm like summer waters. Lightly, lingering, he kisses Zabuza’s shoulder, and says, “I have a dream that’s big enough for both of us to share.”


End file.
